Five Questions for Worship Leaders: Kevin Twit of Indelible Grace

Sojourn Worship & Arts Pastor Mike Cosper recently intereviewed one of my heroes, Kevin Twit, Reformed University Fellowship Pastor and also the founder of Indelible Grace. Check it out.

Re:Sound Podcast

Tim Smith announces Re:Sound’s new podcast. It looks like a great resource for anyone planning and leading gathered worship.

New Free Podcast

When we launched Re:Sound last spring I had in mind a larger audience and more polished recording projects. However, at Mars Hill Church we have been giving away free downloads of live music from our worship gatherings for years. As a way to share more of what God is doing among the musicians of Mars Hill, we are launching a new podcast.

The Mars Hill Church: Worship podcast will highlight worship leaders and songwriters from across the church as well as brief insights into the theology of worship and why we respond to God the way we do at Mars Hill Church. There will also be new songs with every installment. Join me for the first episode, which includes an interview and new song from Cam Huxford of Mars Hill Downtown Seattle and another song from my band Ex Nihilo.

Download and Subscribe

Download the Mars Hill: Worship podcast here and subscribe to the feed to get all future content. I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think on Twitter at twitter.com/pastortimsmith.

You can also subscribe to the Mars Hill Worship podcast on iTunes.

Songs of Redemption Project

I’m super pumped to announce that I’ll be in the studio this week recording a  6 song EP. The songs include…

• “There is a Fountain” (William Cowper)
• “He is Risen!” (Eric Schumacher)
• “Come Lord Jesus to Redeem Us” (Gary Parrett)
• “Upon this Mount (Isaiah 25:6-9) (Gary Parrett)
• “Look Ye Saints the Sight is Glorious”(Thomas Kelly)
• “Christ is Coming! Let Creation” (John R. MacDuff)

Each of these songs build the theme of Redemption from Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to our waiting for his return and our celebration of his return. This is an exciting project not only for me but also for our music team, our church and Jesus’ Church everywhere because the end result will be more Truth-saturated music in the ears, hearts and minds of many!

Lead09 Starts Today!

Lead ‘09 begins today! And I can’t wait for the first session to start!

Together, men and women from Maine, New England and beyond will be exploring the themes of Gospel, Community and Mission.   This two-day conference is a call to each of us and our churches to take Jesus seriously–to radically reshape our lives around the gospel word so that we can truly be his gospel community on God’s mission.

Please pray that God will use this conference to exalt Jesus in the lives of all who attend and in the churches they represent. May God bring a great awakening of gospel renewal in New England!

Here’s Friday’s schedule…

Friday – October 9

* 12:30 : Welcome

* 12:40 : Gathered Worship

* 01:00 : Tim Chester – Session #1 Making God’s people the heart of God’s mission – Is our gospel too small? Too individualistic? The Bible’s story of salvation puts community at the heart of God’s mission. The church is part of our identity as Christians.

* 03:00 : Tim Chester -  Session #2 Community as lifestyle – How can we live as a community – sharing lives, sharing decisions, sharing struggles?

* 05:00 : Jonathan Dodson. Session #3 What is the Gospel? The Three Dimensions – this will be a biblical-theological examination of the Doctrinal, Personal, & Social dimensions of the Gospel.

* 06:30 : Dinner

* 08:00 : Breakout Sessions –

1. Too Busy for Mission?: Tim Chester
2. Becoming a Missional Leader: Jonathan Dodson
3. Gospel, Community, Mission & Orphan? Bill Legere
   
4. The Shift: Our experience in re-churching the church: Mark Gedicks

Here’s the full schedule. Hope to see you there!

New Indelible Grace CD “By Thy Mercy”

One of my favorite sources of music for gathered worship, Indelible Grace, has just released a new, acoustic CD, “By Thy Mercy.” The men and women of Indelible Grace take old, forgotten and oft times neglected hymns and write new arrangements and melodies. You can be sure all their songs are truth-saturated, God-centered, and Christ-exalting.

You can check it out here at AmazonMP3.

You can preview the 10 tracks, too:

1. By Thy Mercy [feat. Matthew Smith]
2. Jesus Lord We Look To Thee [feat. Jason Feller]
3. A Prayer For The Broken Hearted [feat. Chelsey Scott]
4. Rock Of Ages When The Day Seems Long [feat. Mp Jones]
5. Greater Than Our Hearts [feat. Matthew Smith]
6. Salvation To The Lamb [feat. Emily Deloach]
7. Hallelujah Praise Jehovah [feat. Jeremy Casella]
8. Great God From Thee [feat. Andrew Osenga]
9. My God My Father Blissful Name [feat. Justin Smith]
10. Lo The Storms Of Life Are Breaking [feat. Sandra McCracken]

HT Vit Z

Christ-Centered Worship Now Available

Justin Taylor points out some significant praise for Bryan Chapell’s latest book, on Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice:

“This will be the first book I give people–or turn to myself–on the practice of understanding, planning, and leading in corporate worship.”
- Tim Keller, senior pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church; author of The Reason for God

“Destined to become one of the best resources available for improving the practice of Christian worship.”
- Philip Ryken, senior minister, Tenth Presbyterian Church, PA

“An astonishingly helpful book. It is theologically rich, especially when it comes to showing, in detail, how the nature of the gospel ought to shape our public services. . . . No one will agree with everything he has written here, but only the most ignorant could not profit enormously from this thoughtful and stimulating book.”
- D. A. Carson, research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

For 48 hours (until 4 PM on Saturday, August 15), WTS Books is selling it for $9.99 (60% off the retail price).

Explore sample pages.

Here’s a video introduction:

Everyone’s a Worshiper

The Bible alone declares that human beings are worshipers by their very nature and that everything we say and do is shaped by worship. God’s Word alone insists that we are always serving God or some aspect of the creation, and whatever rules our hearts will exercise inescapable influence over our lives and behavior.

Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Hands of the Redeemer, p. 70

American Idolatry: Worship Gone Bad

Most people probably wouldn’t label the good ole USA as “idolatrous.” But the fact is, we have merely repackaged and domesticated our idols.  If we grasped the fact that we really do worship 24/7, I think we’d be shocked by our idolatry–our worship gone bad.

Worship Notes: New Testament Worship, part 4

The most recent Worship Notes is now available, here.

The July 2009 issue concludes the series on the distinctives of New Testament Worship begun in the March 2009 issue and includes:

• Theme article: Part 4 of “Key Themes in New Testament Worship” (“Freedom of Form”)
• Additional resources on the theme of “Worship and Culture”
• Quotations on the theme of “Freedom and Form in Worship”

Worship Notes is a ‘must read’ newsletter–brimming with rich theology but in a small enough dose that you can actually read the whole thing.

All back issues of Worship Notes are available here.

Re:Sound “Rain City Hymnal” Free for Download

Re:Sound, the music side of the Resurgence family has officially launched. And for a limited time they’re offering their first album, “Rain City Hymnal”, for FREE download!  What a way to kickoff what aims to be a theologically unified, stylistically diverse, musically excellent ministry!! Check out and download their 12 newly-arranged, God-centered hymns.